Friends are the Family We Choose
by Flavor Of My Heart
Summary: Skye drags Fitz to get her tattoo removed, and a whole new adventure begins. Tattoos may not necessarily be permanent, but she can think of one thing that is. The love she has for her team. (Fluffy one-shot cause this family needs it. Skitz brotp-centric, with bits of Skyeward and Fitzsimmons and illusions to philinda. And ALL of the brotps)


A/N: Bit of team fluff, because I think the AOS fandom needs it right now.

Disclaimer: Don't own.

Skye makes Fitz drive her to get her tattoo removed. She had considered Simmons and Ward, but decided against it. Ward would cringe when he saw what the tattoo was…Simmons seemed like she might faint just seeing one.

So that's how Fitz ends up in the office with her, rambling on about how he didn't know she had any tattoos. Skye hums noncommittally.

"What is it, anyway?"

Skye rolls over, lifting up her shirt so he can see the side. Across the sides of her ribs is a small tidal wave. "The Rising Tide," she explains, watching his eyes go a little wide.

It's stupid, just ink in her skin, but its easy to consider this to be her really cutting off her last ties with the organization…with that life. With Miles.

Fitz says nothing the rest of the time. She can see the questions sitting in his eyes though. How many more does she have? Where? What are they? Why did she get them?

Maybe someday she'll tell him. Today's not that day.

The next visit, he asks if he hurts.

It always hurts more to get it removed. "I've gotten one removed before," she admits.

Fitz raises an eyebrow. She sits up, holding out her wrist. "I was fifteen and an idiot. Got my birthday on my wrist, because it's one of the most painful places to get one. I felt like it was claiming my identity. I was wrong about that," she shrugs, giving a crooked smile at where the dates used to sit.

"So no more tattoos?"

She grins wickedly. So curious. "Wouldn't you like to know," she laughs.

On the last trip, her skin finally clean of the Rising Tide, she drives him to a tattoo parlor. Fitz all but gapes at her. "You've got to be kidding me! You just got one bloody design of your skin and you want another?" he balks. Skye laughs.

She shrugs off her sweater, and in her camisole the top of her back is revealed. He can see little words there. All the Broken Hearts in the World Still Beat. "I still have some."

Skye's about to walk in when Fitz grabs her arms. "Wait, okay? Give me a month."

He doesn't say what he needs the month for, but it's not hard to guess. She really doesn't think he'll ever be able to get her to change her mind, but she agrees to the grace period. However, should he ever try and dictate what she does to her body again, she will throw him out of the bus. There's something in his request though that makes him seem more thoughtful, and she trusts him.

She finally explains to the team where she and Fitz have been running off to. He's busy working, presumably on his grand plan to stop her next tattoo, and even enlists Simmons help.

Ward, however, is far too interested in the words on her back and asking her about what made her want to get rid of the Rising Tide one. His fingertips trace the words. "Got it after Miles walked off the plane," she murmurs. She'd done it one time when they were fueling up. Slipped away during a few of their free hours and spelled out her strength and independence on ink because she wanted to. She liked how they fit there.

Ward's eyes flash with something like admiration and he smiles at her.

Eventually Fitz's month is up. She throws him the car keys, grinning. He doesn't throw them back, much to her surprise. Did he give up before he even started?

"This is what I've been working on," he says, handing her a small vial of black liquid.

"Am I supposed to know what this is?"

"Smart Ink. It can be coded biologically and has cybernetics. That particular vial, which I can reproduce, is fitted to your genetic code. That's why Simmons swabbed your cheek, got blood samples…and the like. It's designed not to fade, get infected or wrinkle as much as you age."

"Fitz-"

"I'm not done!" he hands her a little remote as well. "That controls the ink. Its main purpose is to alter the color. Since it's coded to you…it can return to your natural skin color at the simplest of commands. You can get as many tattoos as you want but not have them all showing all the time. And should you not want one, but not want to get it removed, you can just hide it."

Skye's the one balking now. That's what he was working on? It's genius…it's amazing. She was never one for sleeves or loads of tattoos, but this could allow her to get as many as she want but keep her appearance how she wanted. A different look for a different mood. She wrapped her arms around Fitz, thanking him profusely.

"It's not just for you," he admits, holding up a second vial. "Let's go get some ink."

Skye can't take him seriously and bursts out laughing, much to his chagrin. Still, she follows him to the car as they head out.

He squirms and cringes and flinches as the needle shoots ink into his skin, but at the end of the day he seems content. Skye's almost positive that he got Simmons' name written on his skin in some ancient language, but she says nothing.

Skye's is a knot. It sits on her hip, and woven into the art is each of her team members' names, holding her together. Some of the names sit between threads, and some of them are in the threads themselves. All she knows is that when she shows it to Fitz, he's staring, and it's not because she had to start to take off her pants in order for him to see.

Fitz immediately walks back in and got the same tattoo, on his shoulder blade. Skye's name replaces his on this one. Skye laughs, watching him continually cringe again. He automatically set the Simmons' one to be hidden, for now. She figures he'll show it when it's ready. She's not going to hide hers, but there's something relieving about knowing she could if she had to.

When they get back on the bus they immediately go back to work. Skye's about to go into a meeting with Coulson when Ward stops her. She smiles up at him. "What is it?"

She pulls him into her bunk, shimmying out of her pants so he can see the knot. The expression on his face is unreadable. She stands there for a second, pulling him close. "Do you like it?" she asks playfully. His hand finds her hip, and she knows that his fingers are grazing over his own name, sitting on her body.

This is why Fitz shouldn't hide his Jemma tattoo. The girl would love it. "After everything…"

Skye let him trail off, standing on her tiptoes so their mouths were close. "Mhm," she grins. He's being serious. While her tone may be playful, he should be able to see in her eyes that she means it. Even after everything, his name belongs in that knot. She bumps their lips together, not even a kiss, before going back down and slipping her pants on, skipping off to her meeting with Coulson. She can feel his eyes on her as she leaves and she smiles to herself.

She tells Coulson about the tattoo, and he looks deeply moved. Then he gets down to business.

When she comes out a few hours later, Ward is sitting at the bar, sipping at a tumbler full of Scotch. He's waiting for her. She can play along though. "Waiting for anyone?" she asks, stepping forward. He laughs, staring into his drink.

"Kind of." He sits back, tugging off his shirt and, no, Skye's not complaining. She is kind of confused though.

That's when she sees it. A knot on the inside of his bicep, looking gorgeous against the tone and contours of his muscle. She gets a rush then, the same he did probably, when she sees her own name sitting on his skin. "Fitz made the ink for you too," she breathes. Ward nods. She grabs his shirt and throws it over her shoulders. Her fingers grasp onto the belt loops on his jeans and she tugs him into her bunk.

He got the same tattoo she and Fitz have. She figures she should reward him.

The next morning when she walks out of her bunk in shorts and Ward's shirt, she sees Simmons waiting for her. She grins conspiratorially. "Didya see Fitz's ink?"

Simmons nods. "Completely ridiculous to mark his body like that," she scolds. She doesn't mean it, Skye can tell. She pulls out a vial of ink from her pocket. "Can you, um…"

She can't even get it out, so Skye just nods, going back into her bunk to grab real clothes. Simmons is close to crying the whole time, but once its done and she looks at the knot on the shoulder blade opposite of where Fitz got his, she smiles.

"Fitz also got your name, you know. Sits right on his collarbone," Skye says casually. Simmons gives a horrified look, but it melts away into a smile.

She knows what they'll be up to tonight. She can hear Fitz greet her and gets cut off by something - presumably Simmons' mouth.

Turns out, Coulson's the only one without the knot. May's training Skye one day and does a tuck and roll. And when she rolls, the back of her shirt slides up enough for Skye to see a knot on the small of May's back. Skye smiles to herself and says nothing, though the look that May gives her when she stands says that the other woman knows she saw.

The smile May offers her is almost better than seeing all of their names on her skin. She's returning the affection Skye is giving and she honestly couldn't be happier.

"Matching tattoos. Are we those people?" Coulson asks when he sees Ward and Fitz's. Skye laughs, kissing his cheek.

"We are now, A.C. C'mon, it's sweet! It's a _symbol_," she insists. "How did you even find May's anyway…" she trails off, winking.

Coulson smiles, even though she can tell that he doesn't want to. He doesn't give in. However, he does get a much bigger version of the knot, with everyone's name on it, hung on his wall. To Skye, it's good enough. More than good enough.


End file.
